The consultancy’s director, Simon Miller, said that over the past year companies have been moving from calculating isolated product footprints to more strategic approaches using large amounts of data. But the traditional lifecycle analysis of cradle-to-grave impacts can take many weeks for each product.

Using Product Portfolio Footprinting, Best Foot Forward says it analyzed over 300 products in less than 10 weeks for Crown Paints. The paint company says it now has detailed footprints for all of its products made in the U.K., and is using the findings to set sustainability targets. It is now working with its supply chain to target high carbon impacts.

Miller said multinational corporations are increasingly setting ambitious sustainability targets which go beyond their own operations, which requires a different approach to measurement and reporting. The top 100 companies are estimated to together control more than one quarter of the key resources in global supply chains, according to Jason Clay from the World Wildlife Fund.